A star called T Coronae Borealis in the constellation Corona Borealis, more than 2,500 light-years away. T Coronae Borealis (abbreviated T CrB) is known to explode because it is a rare example of a recurring nova – and explodes once every 80 years.
An expert told The New York Times that these recurring novae are “essentially hydrogen bombs.”
But don’t worry, T Coronae Borealis is too far away for this energy to harm us on Earth. But for a few days it will be one of the brightest objects in the night sky.
“It will be one of the 50 brightest stars in the sky.” It will be as bright as the stars in the Great Galactic Circle,” said astrophotographer Dan Bartlett.
So if you know where in the sky to look, it should be pretty easy to spot. If you don’t know where to look, it will blend in with the other stars and you’ll likely miss this “once in a lifetime event.”
How to see a rare recurring nova in the sky
The easiest way to not miss a nova is to follow the NASAUniverse account on social media. on the X network and turn on notifications.
It’s also good to know how to find the Northern Coronary constellation and where exactly the nova will appear.
First, look for the bright stars Vega and Acturus to find the constellation Hercules. Nearby is the arc of four visible stars that make up the Northern Coronary constellation.
The brightest star in the Northern Coronary is called Alpha Coronae Borealis, which forms the top of the inverted crown in the image below.
Then look slightly down and to the left of Alpha Coronae Borealis: there is the T Coronae Borealis star system where the nova should appear.
When you get the NASA message, check the weather forecast. The best conditions for observing a recurring nova are without clouds and the moon.
“The best time to observe will be about a day after the explosion. But the nova will be visible for several days,” said Elizabeth Hayes, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Recurring nova
The reason T CrB explodes repeatedly and on schedule has to do with the type of star itself.
It is a binary star system in which a cool red giant star and a smaller, hotter white dwarf star orbit each other.
White dwarfs are very small and very dense, about the size of the Earth and the Moon, and have a mass equal to 1.4 times the mass of the Sun.
This means that their gravitational pull is quite strong, and if they have a binary satellite in a close enough orbit, they tend to suck up material, mostly hydrogen.
Every 80 years, the red giant ejects matter onto the surface of the white dwarf and causes an explosion, a nova.
Astronomers believe that T CrB will explode again because the binary system is behaving similarly to what it did before 1866. and in 1946 explosions. In the ten years before both explosions, it brightened slightly, and finally dimmed again just before the big bang.
This is exactly what is happening now – since 2015. the star is getting brighter, and in 2023 noticeably faded in March. This suggests that another explosion is imminent.
Astronomers’ analysis shows that this could happen very soon – by 2024. September
Once the explosion has occurred, it will become visible to the naked eye, and then gradually disappear from view over the course of a week.
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2024-08-30 23:16:31